


Improper Relations

by tender_is_the_ghost



Category: Norman Reedus - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Children, Conventions, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Love, New Relationship, Oral Sex, Past Relationship(s), Romance, Sex, Woman on Top
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 01:24:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3230966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tender_is_the_ghost/pseuds/tender_is_the_ghost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A failed one night stand leaves Norman wanting to find out more about Selena, the woman who rejected him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Improper Relations

 

Norman makes his way back to the hotel bar, trying to process what just happened, and spots his cast-mates still grouped together in a back booth. Not feeling in the slightest like re-joining them, he takes a seat at the far end of the bar where he hopes they won’t spot him and orders a double whiskey. Luckily the crowd that was filling the bar earlier has thinned considerably, leaving just a few die-hard convention-goers who seem content to just be in the same room as their idols without feeling the need to encroach on their personal time. His solitude holds out for about ten minutes before someone comes from behind him and slips onto the stool next to him.

“I thought you’d gone to bed?” Andy asks, just the slightest slur in his words but Norman knows he’s pretty well inebriated. “What happened to the lovely Selena?”

“I don’t know, man,” Norman replies, swirling his drink around inside his glass and staring morosely at it. “Everything was going fine, I took her up to my room, we had another drink and then we started to… well, you know.”

“I’m married, mate, I have no idea,” Andy says with a laugh, signaling the bartender to bring them two more drinks.

“It was all good. She was into it, I was into it – man, was I into it! So, we’re makin’ out like a pair of horny teenagers and I’m giving her all my best moves and suddenly she’s begging me to stop. I look at her and she’s crying her damn eyes out.”

“Seriously? Dude, I know you’re out of practice but I didn’t think it had been that long.”

“Fuck you, it’s not funny. I was freaking out, I didn’t know what the hell I’d done. And she couldn’t stop once she’d started so I wasn’t getting any sense out of her.”

“Wait,” Andy says, sitting his drink down and turning on his stool to scrutinize Norman with the look that Norman knows means Andy can see right through any bullshit Norman is throwing at him. “You really like her, don’t you? This isn’t just some convention hook-up, wham bam, never have to see her again thing, is it?”

Norman can feel the heat rising in his face and he avoids Andy’s stare by downing the rest of his drink. He knows Andy would be the last person on earth to judge him for how he feels but admitting out loud that he’s quite possibly having feelings for a woman he only met a few hours ago sounds ridiculous even to him.

“You do!” Andy says excitedly, grabbing at Norman’s arm and shaking it. “I knew it! I saw the way you were looking at her from the moment we walked in here tonight. Ha! Reedus is smitten.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, asshole. It’s okay for you, with your perfect wife and your perfect family. Not all of us have found the right woman yet.”

“And you think Selena is the one?’ Andy asks, lowering his voice to a more serious tone and this is why Norman loves him so much, he’s always there to back up whatever ridiculous ideas Norman throws out there.

“I don’t know,” Norman shrugs. “Yes, maybe. I didn’t really get a chance to find out. What the hell was I thinking trying to sleep with her like that?”

“You weren’t thinking – that was the tequila.”

“Man, now she’s never going to take me seriously. She probably thinks I hook up with random women at these things all the time. Hell, she probably thinks I picked up another one as soon as I took her back to her room,” Norman sighs, dropping his head to the bar with a solid thunk.

“Hey, come on. Okay, it wasn’t maybe the best idea if you wanted to get to know her better but it didn’t happen. You can just chalk it up to the alcohol and the pair of you can start fresh.”

“Do you really think so?” Norman asks, raising his head from the bar to give Andy a hopeful look. ‘You don’t think I’ve blown it? Man, she was so upset, I feel like such a shit.”

“Look, why don’t you sleep on it and try calling her in the morning. You got her number, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Then, there you go. No use beating yourself up over something that you can’t change. If you like this girl, then do something about it. For all you know, her freaking out might not have anything to do with you.”

“You think so?”

“Well, no, but it won’t hurt to try, brother,” snorts Andy, clapping Norman hard on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” Norman says sarcastically, sliding off his barstool. “I’m going to bed.”

He leaves the bar with the sound of Andy’s soft chuckling laugh following behind him. An hour later and he’s lying on his hotel bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, replaying his evening with Selena over and over in his head. Everything started so fine, with him inviting her and her friend to join his group after he accidently spilled her drink at the crowded bar. She had declined his offer at first but he had insisted he make it up to her, already intrigued by the soft lilt of her accent and the way she looked directly at him as she spoke, not shying away as so many women did in his presence. Her friend, Ginny had pushed her into it and they had squeezed in at the table, Norman taking a seat next to Selena where he had talked with her the whole evening, pretty much ignoring everyone else at the table. He’d found out that she lived just outside the city but that she and Ginny had decided to stay overnight as this was Ginny’s birthday gift to herself so they had splurged on a hotel room where the convention was actually being held. They had talked about seemingly inconsequential snippets of their lives, Norman finding out that she had two kids at home but had been divorced for almost four years and that she worked full-time for her family’s realty business. The more he'd talked to her, the more he'd found himself liking her and, when someone at the table had demanded tequila shots, she had matched him drink for drink until they were both giggling like crazy and any initial awkwardness between them had faded away. As the evening had worn on and with his inhibitions lowered, he had begun flirting outrageously with her, whispering in her ear how beautiful he found her and taking any opportunity to touch her until he had worked himself up into a state of alcohol-fuelled arousal and he could see that she was feeling the same way.

When he had breathed the suggestion of going back to his room into her ear, he had seen the slight hesitation on her face but then she had nodded shyly and taken his hand under the table where it was resting on her thigh and squeezed it tightly. With a whispered explanation in Ginny’s ear, which had left her friend grinning like an idiot, they had slipped quietly away from the table and taken the elevator up to his room. Once inside, everything had progressed as Norman had expected but now, here he was, trying to pinpoint the exact moment the mood in the room had changed from sloppy, drunken passion into all out angst and he has no idea where he went wrong. Glancing at the clock, he closes his eyes with a groan and tries to will himself to sleep, knowing that the morning is just around the corner and he has a long day ahead of him.

He somehow manages to sleep through not only his wake-up call but also the insistent buzzing of his cell phone on the bedside table, only finally rousing himself when Clark practically bangs down the door to get him up. After an insanely fast shower where the room had spun for a full five minutes before he could regain his equilibrium, he found himself eating a dry bagel in the elevator on his way down to the convention floor. With his Ray-bans firmly in place and Clark carrying extra coffee beside him, Norman plasters a smile on his face and heads into his booth, calling a cheerful greeting to the fans already lined up to see him. His eyes flick over the crowd, not that he expects for a second to see Selena there, but he still can’t help himself. Quickly, before he meets the first person in line, he sends off a short text to her, not really knowing what he wants to say but just needing to know that she's okay. He’s disappointed but not really surprised when he gets no reply either then or throughout the day as he checks his phone between meeting people. The crowd lifts his spirits as always and he soon gets into the swing of things, enjoying his day and feeling appreciative of every single person that he gets to meet but there’s still a little part of his mind that’s turning over the events of the previous night. As the convention winds down and he finally gets to the end of his very long line, he takes another look at his phone on the way back to his room and, finding he still hasn’t heard from Selena, he tries calling her, only to get directly connected to her voicemail. Sighing, he leaves her a brief message, stumbling over his words, telling her that he hopes she’s okay and that he’d really like to talk to her but he has a sneaking suspicion that he’s never going to hear from her again.

**♥♥♥**

“Mom… Mommy…”

The shrill sound of her five year old daughter’s plaintive cry pierces through the daydream Selena is having as she sorts her family’s dirty laundry into the machine and she takes a second to come back to reality before she replies.

“In the utility room, honey.”

“There’s a man on the phone,” her daughter tells her, solemnly holding out the handset to her. “I answered all by myself.”

“Good girl, Gracie. Now go find your brother and tell him to get washed up for dinner.” Selena smiles, taking the phone from her daughter. “Hello?”

“Selena?”

“Yes, this is Selena,” she replies, absently trying to place the voice as she stuffs another dirty shirt into the already over-loaded machine.

“This is Norman, uh, Norman Reedus,” comes the voice on the other end of the line and Selena feels a cold sweat break out along her spine. “Selena, are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m just… how did you get this number?”    

“You’re in the phone book,” he says with a low chuckle that does unnatural things to her insides and she slaps a hand across her eyes.

“What do you want?” she asks, hoping that didn’t come out as bitchy as it sounded to her own ears.

“You didn’t answer any of my messages or return my calls. I wanted to make sure you were okay,” he tells her and she can hear the hesitation in his voice and it makes her like him even more.

“I’m fine,” she replies, wanting to tell him that she’s really not, that she hasn’t been able to get that night out of her mind since it happened and she feels stupid and ridiculous and embarrassed to her core. “There just didn’t seem any point to replying. What happened… happened. I thought it would be better to just let it go.”

He can hear him take a deep breath on the other end of the line and she’s torn between wanting him to say that it’s fine, he was just making sure she was alive and have a nice life and wanting him to never hang up.

“About that night,” he starts, “I was…”

“We were both drunk,” she interrupts, sinking to sit on the floor in front of the washer. “It was a crazy night and I should never have let it get as far as it did. I’m so sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” he says quickly. “It wasn’t fair of me to put you in that situation. I should’ve known better. Contrary to what you might read in the tabloids, I don’t make a habit of trying to seduce women that I’ve just met. Maybe we can blame the alcohol for loosening us up a bit, I don’t know, but I honestly liked you and it wasn’t just about sex for me, I hope you know that. I really wanted to get to know you better but I fucked it all up as usual. I feel like such an ass.”

“You’re not, I swear,” Selena says, feeling her face flush with renewed embarrassment at her behavior that night, so grateful that he can’t see her right now. “I was the ass. I was just having such a good time with you and you were nothing like I thought you’d be and I just… I really, really wanted to spend the night with you. I promise I didn’t mean to lead you on. I really thought I could go through with it but I just…”

She can feel her throat closing with the tears that are threatening to fall again and she swallows thickly, taking a deep breath to still her shaking hands.

“I never wanted you to do anything you didn’t want to do, Selena, and you don’t owe me any explanation. It’s not the end of the world.”

“I just feel so stupid,” she tells him, feeling comforted by his words and wanting somehow to explain to him what had happened that night.

“Hey, enough of that. You had your reasons and I respect that. It doesn’t mean I like you any less and I don’t still want to get to know you better?”

“Why?” Selena asks in surprise.

“Because you’re smart and you’re funny and you’re easy to talk to. I had a really good time with you that night. And obviously you’re as sexy as hell but I like the whole package, Selena, and I’d like to start fresh with you, if you want to? Why do you think I’ve been leaving you all those messages?”

“I don’t know, I just thought you felt sorry for the crazy lady who must have been the only woman in the whole damn place who didn’t want to sleep with you.”

“Okay, now you’re just stroking my ego,” he says with a small laugh and Selena feels a smile creep over her own face. “Seriously, I want to get to know you better. I felt like we had something going on that night, apart from the obvious, was I wrong?”

“No, you weren’t wrong, which is why it just made it that much harder to not go through with it but I made a promise to myself and I would have hated myself if I’d broken it.”

“What kind of promise?” Norman asks and Selena can hear the genuine interest in his voice but a noise from the kitchen reminds her that she’s not alone.

“I can’t tell you,” she answers, pushing up from the floor.

“Okay,” he says quietly. “It’s none of my business anyway.”

“No, I mean I can’t tell you right now,” she smiles, turning the dial on the washer and stepping back as the machine chugs into life. “There are little ears around.”

“Then how about we continue this conversation later when you have a little more privacy?”

“Sure, if you really want to that is?”

“I really want to,” he replies and she knows that he’s smiling on the other end and her stomach fills with butterflies. “Call me when you’re free, it doesn’t matter how late, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Okay,” Selena tells him and, just like that, he's gone and she’s left staring at the handset in dumb amazement, wondering if she just imagined the whole thing.

Later, with the kids safely asleep in their beds and the door to her room firmly closed, Selena sits nervously on her bed, her legs tucked up under her as she stares at the phone in her hand. Finally, she takes a deep breath and hits dial on Norman’s number, surprised when he picks up after the first ring.

“Hi,” he says and she feels that shiver caressing her spine again at the sound of his voice.

“Hi,” she answers, keeping her voice pitched low. “I’m not bothering you, am I?”

“Of course not, I was just sitting here waiting for you to call. I wondered if maybe you’d changed your mind.”

“No, not at all,” Selena assures him quickly. “Just the joys of trying to get a 5 and 7 year old to bed on a Saturday night.”

“Ahh, I remember those days. You have my sympathy,” he chuckles and Selena feels herself relaxing a bit more.

“It’s an adventure, that’s for sure.”

“So…” he says, leaving the word hanging between them and Selena closes her eyes before continuing.

“My babies are my everything, I’m sure you know that, and I’m sure you feel the same about your boy. There’s nothing you wouldn’t do to protect him, right?”

“Of course.”

“And that’s how I feel about my two. It’s just been the three of us for a long time. Their daddy upped and left us nearly four years ago, ran off with his secretary – how clichéd is that? Now he’s got himself a perfect new family but that’s neither here nor there. What I’m try to say is, sex isn’t just sex for me, it has to mean something. I can’t just be throwing myself at random guys I meet in a bar, no matter who they are. I have to think of my babies and what it would mean to them if I get involved with another man. I don’t want them getting attached to someone who’s just going to be gone in a few days or a few weeks. It’s not fair on them and it’s not fair on me, so I told myself that the next time I slept with a guy it was going to be because I was in love with him and I knew he was in love with me.”

“I can understand that, I really can. Hell, I felt the same way for a long time. I guess I still do to a certain extent so I can respect where you’re coming from.”

“Yeah but it’s easier for you now your son is older, right? He understands a little better.”

“Maybe, I don’t know. I still feel like I need to be really sure of someone too before I let them into our life. I’ve made some horrible mistakes in that past, I’ll admit that, and it’s probably affected him more than he let on but sometimes my heart just overrules my head and I throw myself into relationships that I probably shouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.”

“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Because at the end of the day, even though we’re parents and we’ll make whatever sacrifices we have to for our kids, we’re also human beings who have our own needs and wants and desires. My Momma and Daddy brought me up to believe that sex was a sin unless it’s between husband and wife so I saved myself until I was married and look where that got me? Now I’m divorced with 2 kids at 35, spending all my free time watching tv and fantasizing over men who are never gonna want me in a million years.”

“That’s not true,” Norman interjects. “I wanted you – want you.”

“And that was amazing and wonderful and I’m still not sure that it wasn’t a dream. I don’t even know why I went to the stupid convention, I just let Ginny talk me into it. She said I talk about the damn show enough, I should fit right in. I know it was her birthday but just for once I wanted to do something for me, something that didn’t involve kids and responsibilities and being a grown-up. Was that selfish of me? And then I met you and it was just too surreal and you were nothing like I expected. I couldn’t believe that out of all the woman you had the opportunity to spend time with that night, you were spending it with me and I loved every minute of it. I loved that you were actually interested in what I had to say, that you really listened to me and the fact that you were coming onto me nearly blew my mind. I thought that, even if it was just for one night, I was going to do it. I’ve been on my own for so long and then, there you were and you were actually interested in me but when it came down to it, I just couldn’t go through with it, no matter how much my body was saying yes. And I’m sorry for that.”

“Selena, how many times can I tell you, you have nothing to be sorry for. If anything you did us both a favor. If we had slept together then that might have been that, one night and the horrible, awkward morning after and then we would have gone our separate ways and probably never spoken again and I would have hated that. Now we have the chance to see if there’s something else here, what do you say? We both know where we stand, so what do we have to lose?”

“I think I’d like that,” Selena says, hardly daring to believe that she’s seriously discussing starting a relationship with this man.

“Good. Then how about you come spend next weekend with me here in Georgia? I’ll be filming late on Friday but we could hang out all weekend. I have a spare room or we can find you a hotel if you’re not comfortable staying at my place. Is there someone to watch the kids for you?”

“I guess I can ask my Momma as long as I don’t tell her where I’m going,” Selena says, thinking out loud.

“Why not?” Norman asks with a laugh.

“Oh, did you not hear me talking about how strict my Momma is? It doesn’t matter if I’m 15 or 35, if I tell her I’m taking off for the weekend to spend it with some guy I just met, I’ll never hear the end of it. I didn’t even tell her when Ginny and I went to the con last month. We said we went to some fancy spa for the weekend. She wouldn’t have approved of us spending all that money on some ‘awful tv show’ as she puts it but wasting it on pampering ourselves was fine by her.”

“You can bring Ginny too if you need a cover, I have plenty of room,” Norman tells her.

“No, that’s okay,” Selena giggles. “I don’t think you’re ready for a whole weekend of Ginny and I don’t think we need a chaperone. I’ll tell my Momma I’m visiting an old friend from college, it’ll be fine.”

“Then it’s a date,” he says and Selena feels that flutter of nervous excitement in her stomach again.

It’s been some time since anybody has made her feel like this and the week passes in a nervous blur until Saturday morning finally arrives and she throws her overnight bag in the car at a ridiculously early hour to make the 6 hour drive from New Orleans to Senoia. What she hadn’t told Norman was that she hates to drive and she spends the whole trip with her fingers white-knuckled against the steering wheel, not stopping once until she pulls up in front of the address he gave her and sees him sitting out on his front steps. His face breaks into a wide grin as she steps from the car and there’s an awkward moment as they first approach each other but then he’s pulling her in for a bone-crushing hug and any nerves she was feeling just disappear.

Norman is the perfect gentleman all weekend, showing Selena around the area he spends half his year in. He’s attentive, charming and funny and, by the time Sunday night rolls around, Selena is completely head over heels for him. When he kisses her goodbye before she leaves, she tightens her hands in the front of his t-shirt, desperately wanting to stay with him and a little bit heartbroken that she has to leave. She drives home in a daze, the taste of him still fresh on her lips and she wonders how this is ever going to work.

♥♥♥

Practically falling into his trailer after another arduous day on set, Norman takes a quick shower and then collapses onto the leather sofa, cranking the AC up another notch. Picking up his phone, he scrolls quickly through the messages he's received during the day and then checks the time before he dials Selena’s cell.

“What are you wearing?” he asks in a mock seductive tone as soon as she picks up.

“High heels and a smile. How about you, big boy?” comes Ginny’s voice from the other end and Norman grimaces in embarrassment but doesn’t let it phase him.

“Oh, hey Gin, where is she?”

“If you mean the smitten kitten that’s been talking about you for the past two weeks and giggling like a schoolgirl every night when you call, she’s putting the kids to bed. Jacob had a bit of a fever today so he’s been kinda cranky. Be gentle with her, okay? Here she is.”

He hears a muffled conversation taking place and then Selena’s voice is warm in his ear as she says hello.

“How’s Jacob?” he asks, thinking she sounds a little tired.

“Sleeping, finally. He had me up half the night and I kept him home from school today but he’s doing okay now. Just one of those 24 hour bugs, I guess. How was your day?”

“Probably a lot easier than yours, I’m betting,” he tells her honestly, ignoring the ache in his back and the fresh scrapes on his knuckles. “I was wondering if you’d thought any more about this weekend?”

“Honestly, no. I mean, I’d love to come but I don’t know if I can ask my Momma to take the kids again so soon after the last time. She’s going to start getting suspicious.”

“Then bring them too. I can get tickets for everyone, they’ll have a blast.”

“Oh, Norman, I don’t know about that.”

“What’s to know? I’m coming back to the New Orleans for the con this weekend, of course I want to see you while I’m there. It’s not like you’d have to bring them across the country or anything, I’ll be right on your doorstep.”

“I know but-”

“No buts, put Ginny back on the phone.”

“Ginny, but why?”

“Don’t argue, woman, just give me your annoying sidekick.”

Norman hears Selena laugh and he smiles to himself as she passes the phone over to her best friend.

“Yes, Mr. Reedus, sir, how can I help?” Ginny asks in a singsong voice.

“You can help by telling Selena that she needs to come to the con this weekend and it’s fine if she brings the kids. I can get them a nice room in the hotel overnight so she doesn’t have to worry about anything.”

“What’s in it for me?” Ginny asks slyly and Norman smirks to himself.

“Well, obviously you’re invited too, Gin. All expenses paid, VIP backstage passes for the whole weekend, cut any line you like. One condition though.”

“Tell me,” she says cautiously.

“Saturday night you watch the kids so that Selena and I can get a little alone time.”

“Done.”

“And Sunday night, you take them home after the con so I can take her out for a nice grown-up dinner, just the two of us.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Reedus.”

“So, what do you say?”

“What do you think? Of course I’m in.”

“In what? What are you two concocting?” he hears Selena ask in the background and then she’s back on the line with him.

“Nothing, babe, just making plans for the weekend. Ginny will fill you in on the details.”

“Oh, will she now? And do I get any say in these plans?”

“Nope. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy yourself, sweet girl.”

“I’m not sure I like you two conspiring together. I think I should be worried but right now I’m just too tired to care.”

“Aww, my poor girl,” Norman says, hating to hear the exhaustion in her voice. “Why don’t you send Ginny home and have an early night, we can talk tomorrow. Text me when you’re tucked in and I’ll kiss you goodnight.”

“M’kay, I like that idea,” Selena answers sleepily. “Ginny, Norman says you have to go home now.”

Norman laughs as he hears Ginny’s muttered response in the background then says goodbye to Selena and lets her get to bed.

On Saturday morning, he arrives early at the convention center, seeing the huge crowds already lined up to get in as his car pulls into the private entrance for guests at the back of the building. Heading inside, he's suddenly inundated with people needing a moment of his time but when his phone rings and he sees Selena’s number on the display, he drops everything to go greet her and her family and make sure they get in okay. He stays with them as long as he can, chatting to the kids and getting them excited for all the things they’re going to see that weekend. Eventually he has to get to his booth to start signing but he tells them to come by as often as they like throughout the day to see him. He’s feeling in a great mood when he hits his table and sees the crowd waiting for him. Although he loves to do the slightly smaller cons like the one he was in town for on the day he met Selena, there’s something about the sheer scale of the Wizard World events that just get his juices flowing.

When he looks up and sees Selena standing on the outskirts of his line, he feels his heart give a little flip and he has one of the attendants bring her and the kids up front where he immediately initiates a silly string war with Jacob amidst the laughing cheers coming from the crowd. He catches her watching him with a soft smile on her face and he throws her a wink, not caring if anyone else sees. She comes and goes throughout the day, sometimes with Ginny and the kids and sometimes by herself but he finds his heart lifting each time he catches sight of her nearby. He even persuades her to bring the whole family in to have a photograph taken later in the afternoon, bugging the photographer to make sure that it’s perfect. With his final photo session over for the day, he insists on taking everyone out for dinner, changing his mind about spending the evening alone with Selena, despite her protests that he doesn’t need to be around two hyper kids when he’s been working all day.

By the end of the night, he knows he’s in deep, the kids having stolen his heart as much as their mother has. He escorts them back to their room, carrying the sleeping Gracie who had refused to be parted from him once he had shared the last of his dessert with her at dinner. Carefully handing her over to Ginny at the door to their room, he says goodnight to Jacob with a tiny fist bump before stealing five minutes alone with Selena where he just holds her tight and kisses her breathlessly the entire time. Back in his room, alone, he lies in his bed, the faint smell of her perfume still lingering on his skin and he wonders how he can prove to her that he wants to make this work.

♥♥♥

Selena feels exhausted again but it’s a happy exhaustion this time, one that comes with having had a fun-packed weekend with her family. As she puts the finishing touches to her make-up in the bathroom mirror, she can hear the excited babbling of her kids through the open door as they play with the new toys they brought home from the con. Over their constant chatter she hears the buzz of the front door and Ginny going to open it and her stomach does that thing where it drops to her toes and back up again as she hears Norman’s voice in her living room. Taking a deep breath, she glances in the mirror one last time and then goes out to find him on the floor, Gracie swinging from his neck as he listens to Jacob giving him a rundown on everything his new Transformer can do. Putting on her stern mommy voice, Selena tells her kids to stop harassing their guest and somehow, twenty minutes later, she's managed to get Norman out of her house and into the car on their way to her favorite restaurant. As they’re seated, she can’t help but notice the curious stares they’re getting from other patrons and she can’t help but wonder if this is what it’s always like for him wherever he goes and how it would be to be a part of his life and have to deal with that every time they left the house.

“So, did you have a good weekend?” Norman asks, once the waiter has poured their wine and left them to peruse the menu.

“It was amazing, thank you so much. The kids had a ball and so did Ginny,” Selena answers with a light laugh.

“I’m glad,” he tells her, reaching out to squeeze her hand across the table.

“You did too much for us, you know. The kids haven’t shut up about mommy’s new friend, Norman, since we got home. I’m sorry they were such brats this weekend, hanging all over you.”

“Are you kidding me? Selena, they’re great kids and I loved spending time with them, with all of you. I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Even though I have to admit, I do like getting you all to myself tonight,” he tells her, leaning across the table to whisper in her ear. “You look stunning, by the way. Makes me want to skip dinner and just have you for dessert.”

“Oh hush,” Selena laughs, pushing him away but feeling her face flush with the implication of his words.

The waiter reappears and they make their choices, falling into an easy conversation over the meal until, all too soon, the evening is over and Selena finds herself sitting in Norman’s car back in her own driveway. Looking up at her home through the passenger window, she feels a wave of sadness wash over her, knowing that this is probably the last time she's going to see Norman for a while with his busy schedule.

“I’m going to miss you,” he says softly from behind her and she turns back to him, wondering if he can read her mind.

“I’m going to miss you too,” she replies with a sigh.

“Well, I have a weekend off again in about three weeks,” he tells her in a serious tone, “Maybe I can come visit again?”

“Are we crazy?” Selena blurts out suddenly, all her doubts about starting a relationship with him bubbling to the surface. “I mean, how is this ever going to work? You spend your time in New York or Georgia and every other weekend you’re travelling the country or flying overseas to who knows where. How can I be a part of that? My home is here, the kids’ home is here, we can’t just uproot because it doesn’t fit in with your lifestyle.”

“And I would never ask you too, not in a million years but it can work, Selena, it has to.”

“But what if it doesn’t? It’s been one weekend and already Jacob and Gracie are attached to you. That’s exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I shouldn’t have agreed to bring them this weekend.”

“Then what do you want to do? End it now before we even have a chance to see where it goes? Is that what you want?”

“Maybe,” she tells him, seeing the hurt look on his face and feeling the same ache in her chest, “I don’t know. All I know is I’m already feeling sad and you haven’t even left yet. I don’t want to feel like this every time I see you, just counting the minutes till you leave again.”

“So, what if I moved here?”

“Don’t be silly, I couldn’t ask you to do that either, I wouldn’t. You have a family to think about too and your home is in New York.”

“Then we have to try and make it work, Selena, because I’m not giving up on this yet, I can’t. I’m already falling in love with you and I don’t know how to stop that.”

“Now I know you’re crazy,” Selena scoffs but her heart is pounding in her chest at his words. “You’ve known me, what, just over a month? And we’ve only been together three times in that month. How can you be in love with me?”

“Because you’re all I think about, every day, every damn night I’m alone in my bed just wishing you were there. I can’t wait to call you every night and hear about your day, listen to you tell me what the kids have been up to and how Ginny tried to mow down the mailman with her car twice this week because he keeps walking through her flowerbeds. I love you because I want to know everything about you, no matter how big or how small, and because I want to share everything about me with you too. And I don’t think you can put a time-frame on how I should be feeling, it doesn’t work like that. I could know you for months and fall in love with you piece by piece or I could see you across the bar at a convention and fall in love with you instantly without ever having said a word to you.”

“Then that’s not love, that’s just a physical attraction,” Selena interrupts.

“Maybe, maybe not. I had a good friend once, well I still do, who met this girl and they dated and everything was wonderful so they decided to get married because this was it for them. For his bachelor party, we hired a suite in Vegas for the weekend and we were out, hitting the casinos and the bars and just generally being assholes, when we run into a bunch of girls on a bachelorette party. Next thing I know, the groom to be is making googoo eyes at one of the bridesmaids. Of course, I just thought it was the booze talking and didn’t think anything more of it. Next morning I couldn’t find him anywhere and I was freaking the fuck out, thinking he’d done something stupid and I eventually found the two of them sitting in one of the casino’s restaurants, holding hands and looking more in love than I’ve ever seen anybody look in my life. That was when I knew there wasn’t going to be a wedding anytime soon.”

“Wait, so he met a girl on his bachelor night and cheated on his fiancée with her? I’m missing the point of this story.”

“No, he didn’t cheat on her. After I thought I’d put him safely to bed, he’d sneaked out and met up with her and the two of them had spent the whole night sitting in the restaurant booth just talking. He cut our weekend short, went home and broke up with his fiancée and, by the next weekend, he'd quit his job, sold all his stuff and moved across the country to live with this girl. Now they’re married and have two beautiful children. The point of the story is that he fell in love with her in one evening, enough to know that she was worth sacrificing everything for. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an hour or a year, when it’s right it’s right and it can’t be denied. Look, I know this is scary and I’m asking for a lot but I’m willing to do what it takes to give this a shot but I also respect that this isn’t something that you can just fall into lightly so, if you need time to think about it, then that’s fine. No pressure. I just wanted you to know how I feel.”

“And I appreciate that,” Selena tells him, her mind buzzing with questions and possibilities, “I really do. I just have so much to think about, a lot of things to get straight in my own mind, you know?”

“I know,” he says, leaning across the gap between them to pull her into his arms, “and I’ll wait as long as you need, sweet girl.”

Selena smiles against his shoulder as he hugs her tight, clearing her mind enough to just enjoy the sensation of being held by him and feeling a little giddy with the knowledge that he loves her. She’s been trying to keep her feelings for him safely locked away in a dark corner of her mind, frightened that, if she lets herself examine them too closely, she’ll find that she’s in love with him too and then there’ll be no turning back. For now she pushes that aside as he kisses her long and hard before she has to let him go, losing herself in his touch and wondering how she would ever live without feeling it again.

♥♥♥

Norman can barely contain his excitement as he drives Selena to their destination shooting nervous glances at her in the passenger seat the whole time, desperately hoping that what he has planned will make her see just how serious he is about being with her. When he parks the car across the street from where he's taking her, he gets out and races around to her side to help her out and then stand her to face the building in front of them, the gaudy neon on the front lighting the night around it.

“I.. Norman? I…” she stammers and he watches as she stands, open-mouthed, staring across the street, her face a mixture of shock and confusion.

“Surprise,” he says, gently taking her hand in his.

“What the… when did you do this? I don’t understand.”

“Well, I remembered you telling me that you worked here once and that you’d just heard that they were closing down and it made you sad.”

“Oh my God, that was a lifetime ago, just after I left college and I wanted to do anything in the world except work for my Daddy. My Momma called it my ‘late teenage rebellion’ and they barely spoke to me the whole time I worked here. I can’t believe you remember me telling you that.”

“I remember everything we talk about, sweet girl,” he tells her, pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her waist. “So, I did a little research and spoke to a few people I know here in town and it turns out that this place was quite the goldmine over the years. It’s just had some bad luck recently, that’s all.”

“So, you bought the House of Shock?” she asks him in an awed whisper, her eyes widening in disbelief.

“Well, I didn’t exactly buy it, I invested in it.”

“Your name is above the sign,” she states as if he didn’t know, turning her head to look back at the building. “Norman Reedus presents the House of Shock.”

“I thought it might help bring some attention back to the place, maybe draw in some tourists,” he shrugs, grinning at her. “I mean, it still needs a lot of work. I’ll probably have to spend all my free time here from now on, just to make sure my investment is being taken care of.”

“Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack, baby,” he laughs, squeezing her waist. “Of course, I’ll have to find somewhere to stay while I’m here. I noticed there were some apartments for rent on your block. What do you think?”

“I think I’m in shock. Or dreaming. This sure as hell can’t be real life.”

“Oh, it’s real, baby,” Norman says, his tone growing serious. “I wanted you to know that I was prepared to make a commitment to you, to trying to make us work and I thought that if I could show you that I’m here for the long run, it might make you feel a little better about giving us a shot.”

“I don’t know what to say, I’m stunned,” Selena tells him and he can see the tears shining in her eyes. “Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before in my life. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

She reaches up between them to take his face in her hands and bring his lips to hers to kiss him with such passion that he worries he might spontaneously combust if she keeps it up for too long.

“Damn, if I’d known it was going to get that kind of reaction, I’d have bought you a building the night we met,” he tells her when they eventually stop kissing and she laughs breathlessly at him.

“Can we go inside?” she asks, her eyes still gleaming and he just nods, taking her hand and leading her across the street.

After a slightly tearful trip down memory lane for Selena, with Norman excitedly explaining all the ideas he has for the place, the two of them come back out into the warm night air and get back into the car.

“So, where now?” Norman asks, as he fastens his seatbelt. “The night is still young, we can go anywhere you want.”

“I think I just want to go home, if that’s okay,” Selena tells him. “It’s been a big night and I’m still kind of processing everything.”

“No problem,” replies Norman, trying to hide the flash of disappointment that he feels at her words. “Home it is.”

They make the short drive back to her place in silence apart from the radio and Norman tries not to feel too deflated, telling himself that he dropped a lot in her lap in one go and now that the initial excitement is over, she probably has a lot to digest. When he pulls into her drive and kills the engine, he’s surprised when she gets out immediately without a word and pulls her keys out to unlock her front door.

“Selena?” he calls quietly after her, climbing out of the driver’s seat and following her to the door. “Are you okay?”

“Never better,” she tells him, turning to fix him with a huge smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Come on.”

She opens the door and steps in, beckoning him to follow her but he hesitates on the threshold.

“What about the kids? I don’t want to make things awkward.”

“They went home with Ginny. I sent her a text earlier while you were climbing in the rafters to check out the lighting rig.”

“You did?” he asks in surprise, his mind racing with the possibilities of this new piece of information.

“Uh-huh,” she nods, reaching out to grab his hand and pull him inside, slamming the door behind them before pressing herself into his personal space and looking him dead in the eye. “I have a little confession to make.”

“You do?” he says, raising an eyebrow at her, a little surprised by this new turn of events.

“I do, but first you have to do something for me, Mr. Reedus.”

“Name it,” he tells her, cocking his head at her.

“Make love to me,” she whispers, leaning in to lay a kiss at the base of his throat and he swallows hard.

Norman looks at her carefully, trying to judge whether she's serious or not as she smiles back at him, her lips slightly parted and he can feel his body already responding to his desire for her. He has to be sure though, he’s come so far to show her that he's ready to make a commitment to her that he doesn’t want to blow it by having sex with her too soon just because he can’t keep his dick in his pants around her.

“Are you sure?” he asks softly, stretching out his hand to take hers and curl his fingers around it. “Because this isn’t why I did this, to get you into bed, you know. I don’t want you to rush into something you’ll regret in the morning and then resent me for it.”

“Rush?” she laughs, pressing herself closer against him until he can feel the heat of her body through his t-shirt and he can practically see his self-restraint floating away. “Oh no, I don’t think it’s rushing. In fact it’s something I think I’ve been putting off for no good reason and what you’ve done today has just reinforced that. I’m ready for this, I want it, and I want you. Now stop talking and start kissing, mister.”

“Okay, okay, Ms. Bossy-pants,” he laughs raising his hands in submission as she gives him an exaggerated wink.

He brings his hands up to cup her face, his thumbs tracing softly over her cheekbones and he feels her tremble slightly as he brings one to brush across her bottom lip.

“Close your eyes,” he whispers and she lowers her lids, her dark lashes standing out in stark contrast against her pale skin.

With the lightest touch he can manage, he presses his lips to each of her eyelids in turn and then works his way around them leaving a trail of feather-light kisses on her skin. By the time his lips get close to hers, she's clutching tightly at the front of his t-shirt and he can feel the small puffs of her breath against his face as he slowly kisses his way up along her jawline towards her mouth. He pauses briefly before he meets her lips with his, sensing her desire for him and torn between his growing need to just take her, hard and fast and dirty, until both of them are nothing more than a quivering mess on the floor and the other part of him that wants to take everything oh so slow and savor every moment. She shifts against him, making a small noise in the back of her throat that sends a jolt of arousal to his already stiffening cock and he runs his tongue over his lips before guiding them gently against hers.

He's kissed her a hundred times before this night, some playful, some passionate but he can tell that this one feels different already as she parts her lips to him and darts her tongue out to meet his. Deepening their kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue, he slides his hands down from her face to encircle her waist, crushing her against him in a tight embrace. He’s not sure how long they kiss, all he knows is how good she feels in his arms, how the scent and taste of her is igniting his passion until his whole body is aching with the need to touch her and be one with her. Selena is the one to break their contact, leaning back in his arms to look at him with wide eyes, her face flushed to a rosy pink and her lips slightly swollen from being pressed so firmly against his.

“I’m thinking maybe we should take this to the bedroom,” she suggests, curving her lips into a smile that sends his pulse racing.

“Whatever you say, sweet girl,” he replies and, as she steps away from him, he grabs her suddenly and scoops her into his arms making her laugh lightly as she wraps her arms around his neck.

She directs him down the hallway to her room and he nudges open the door with his foot, carrying her in to set her back on her feet at the edge of the bed where she leans over to flip on the small lamp on her bedside table, bathing the room in a warm glow.

“Do you remember that night in the hotel, the night we met?” she asks, turning back to him and tugging playfully on the hem of his t-shirt. “How you took me to your room and we sat on your bed and had a drink then we slowly started undressing each other and you laid me down on the bed and started giving me all these amazing kisses across my skin until I thought I was going to explode?”

“I vaguely recall it, yes,” he tells her, smirking a little as he runs his hands up and down her arms.

“Well, do you think we can skip that part this time? Not that I don’t appreciate your seduction techniques and the anticipation of a slow build but, right now, I’m not sure that I can wait to get to the naked part.”

Norman doesn’t even answer her, just bends quickly to yank off his boots and then strips as fast as he can until he's standing before her in nothing but his underwear and she's giggling as he tosses his balled up t-shirt over his shoulder. Almost as fast as him, Selena peels off her own clothes and he takes the time to admire the curves of her body as she throws her shirt after his. Breathing heavily, Norman reaches out for her, pulling her to him as their lips clash in a furious kiss and he guides her back onto the bed, leveraging himself above her as they continue to kiss wildly. Trying to catch his breath, he lifts his head to look at her and she raises her hands to push his hair back from his face, keeping a light hold on his head as he dips down to suck at the skin of her throat. Her fingers tighten on his scalp as his mouth makes its way down her cleavage, his fingers pushing aside her bra strap so that he can work his way back up along her shoulder. Lifting herself partially off the bed, she reaches behind her to unhook her bra and he pulls it from her as she settles back down.

“Beautiful,” he murmurs and she smiles, almost shyly, as he rolls his palms across the soft, pliant skin of her breasts, massaging them and teasing her nipples to hardness between his fingers.

Sucking one in between his lips, he rolls his tongue over it feeling his cock ache as she moans above him, fisting his hair.

“Norman,” she sighs out and he groans against her skin in response, licking and sucking at her breast until his cock is throbbing so much he has to stop and change position on the bed.

Selena trails her fingers across his skin, he nails scratching deliciously across his sensitive nipples and he bites at his lower lip.   

“Can I?” she whispers, skimming her fingers lower on his abdomen until they’re brushing over the edge of his boxer briefs.

“Oh baby, that’s something you never have to ask, believe me,” he tells her, sucking in a ragged breath as her fingers run up the length of his erection through the soft cotton of his underwear.

She slides her fingertips under the waistband, reaching inside to glide her palm against his shaft and he has to fill his mind with inconsequential thoughts to stop himself from coming in her hand.

“Worth the wait,” she breathes, withdrawing her hand and leaving him aching for more.

“Well I aim to please,” he says cockily and she pokes him in the ribs with a small smile.

“Just be gentle with me,” she asks quietly, looking him in the eye. “It’s been a long time, remember.”

“Wait… you mean I’m your first since…?”

“The divorce? Yes,” she tells him, her smile fading a little. “I told you I couldn’t unless it was going to mean something and there’s been nobody else that’s had that potential. In fact, you’re the first guy who’s ever been in this room.”

“Wow, okay, that’s not too much pressure,” he smiles, suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of honor that he was the one she trusted enough to let into the most private part of her life like this. “I promise to go as slow as you need, anything you’re not comfortable with, just tell me and we’ll stop.”

“Norman,” she says with a quiet laugh, “I said I was rusty, I didn’t say I was a born again virgin you need to treat with kid gloves. Just because I haven’t had a man in my bed for a few years, doesn’t mean I haven’t had a healthy sex life.”

“Oh yeah?” Norman asks, stroking his fingers across her ribs and down the slight swell of her stomach. “Are we talking manual or battery operated?”

“Both,” she moans, exhaling loudly as his fingers slide over the surface of her panties and press the material into the heat of her pussy. “Ginny bought me something as a ‘Happy Divorce’ gift and I may have added one or two more to my collection over the years.”

“Really?” he asks, surprised and pleased at the thought of his sweet, ‘good girl’, girlfriend having not one, but a collection of sex toys hidden somewhere in her room. “Maybe someday you’d like to give me a little show and tell.”

“Maybe,” she agrees, gasping as he strokes her clit through the soaked surface of her panties. “Would you think I’m a bad mommy if I told you that sometimes I steal the batteries from the kids’ toys if mine run out?”

“Yes,” he laughs, “but I’d also be incredibly turned on.”

Pushing himself up from the bed, he leans over her to tug off her panties, her hips raising to help him, and then he strips out of his own underwear, his hand automatically wrapping around his length and giving a few slow pulls as he looks down at her, naked before him.

“Come here,” she says, beckoning him with one finger and he climbs back onto the bed, her legs parting to accommodate him as he lowers himself over her.

Selena rubs her hands up his back, pulling him to her as she tilts her head up to kiss him again. His cock is pressed against the wet heat of her pussy and he's dying to just drive it home into her but still he holds back, knowing that, for all their joking around and the lust that’s obviously guiding them, this is still a big deal for her and he doesn’t want her to feel that he's calling all the shots. He pulls his lips from hers, nibbling at the skin along her jawbone until he reaches her earlobe, tugging it gently between his teeth.

“Bottom or top?” he whispers into her ear, wanting her to have the control if that’s what she needs but not knowing her well enough yet to let the choice come naturally between them.

“Top,” she answers shyly, a hint of surprise in her voice and he knows that he's done the right thing by actually asking her instead of just assuming.

Sliding his arms under her back, he rolls over taking her laughing form with him in one swift move and she quickly moves to straddle his thighs, placing her small hands on his torso to balance herself. He can’t help but stare at her, following the contours of her body with his eyes, loving the fullness that motherhood has brought to her shape and it turns him on that she is obviously getting off on his appreciation of her. Sliding his hand up her torso, he cups the swell of her breast, flicking her nipple with his thumb. She takes his hand in both of hers, raising it to her lips and sliding his middle finger into her mouth to wrap her tongue around it and suck hard. The sensation makes him buck his hips a little under her and his rigid cock slips against the sticky lips of her pussy which is spread above him. His eyes are drawn to the dark thatch of hair covering her mound and the glistening pinkness below that. He gently extracts his finger from her mouth, watching the anticipation on her face as he brings it down to push it into her pussy, the small mewl of pleasure that she gives making him curse under his breath.

He works at her for a few minutes, her slippery heat enveloping his fingers as he pushes them into her, and then she grabs blindly at his hand forcing him to stop.

“I only want to come with you inside me,” she tells him in a hushed tone and the ache in his balls deepens even more.

Lifting herself higher above him, his hands steadying her hips, Selena reaches down to grab firmly at his cock and ease herself down onto him. She moans loudly and Norman’s head slams back onto the bed as she takes all of his length, her tight pussy squeezing around him.  

“Fuck, baby,” he mutters as she starts to undulate her hips, rocking back and forth to slide her dripping pussy up and down his shaft.

Finding her rhythm, she rides him faster, her breasts bouncing wildly and he reaches up to let them slide against his palms, feeling beads of sweat break out across his torso as he strains up under her.

“Ohh shit… Norman,” she pants, her nails scratching harshly down his chest, “it feels so fucking good.”

He mentally jumps, realizing that’s the first time he's ever heard her say a curse word any stronger than ‘crap’ or ‘heck’ and it turns him on even more. Raising himself into a sitting position, he slides one hand up around her back to splay his fingers across her spine and uses the other to steady himself as he thrusts up into her. Grunting with every move, he clings to her, finding a new rhythm as she slams her hips down to meet each of his thrusts, her hands tangling painfully in his hair but he barely feels it.

“So fucking good,” she yells, tossing her head back as their bodies grind together. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

The sound of that previously unheard word tripping repeatedly from her sweet lips in the softness of her accent breaks him and he digs his fingers into the back of her neck.

“Selena, I’m…”

His words are swallowed by her own yell and he feels her clenching around him, banging her body down on his like a jackhammer as he shoots his load into her, writhing and bucking as they both come together. She’s shuddering on his lap, her eyes closed and her mouth working in a silent ‘O’ of pleasure and, as he pushes into her spasming wetness the final few times, he releases his hold on her back and pushes his fingers into her hair instead, bringing her face to his so that he can kiss her. Selena’s tongue eagerly presses against his and he can feel the hardness of her nipples rubbing against his chest. With a groan of frustration he feels himself slip from her wetness, the aftershocks of her orgasm pushing him from her. He wants her again so badly he can barely stand it but he knows he needs a little time to recover before he’ll be ready to go again. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t take care of her again, he thinks, parting his lips from hers and looking into her eyes, seeing her pupils blown wide from her arousal.

“What?” she asks, catching her breath as he grins at her.

“Nothing, sweet girl,” he tells her but he carefully untangles himself from her grip and lays her back on the bed.

Slipping his hands under her still-trembling thighs, he pushes her legs up and open, positioning himself between them.

“Norman, no… you don’t have to.”

“Shh,” he chides her softly and lowers his head to lay tiny kisses along her inner thigh.

“I… uhh,” Selena starts but her words trail off as his tongue glides slickly up her pussy.

Her hands fly to his head, her hips raising up from the bed to meet his mouth as he laps at her juices, tasting his own cum on her skin and groaning against her. Using his fingers to open her wider, he licks at her swollen, cherry-red clit, hearing her sharp intake of breath above him. Rubbing the tip of his tongue over it, he alternates with licks and sucks until he finds a spot which has her squealing loudly and he increases his pressure and pace until she’s yelling his name and thrusting her hips up to his face as another orgasm grips her. He keeps going until she collapses back onto the bed, her body going limp beneath him, her hands sliding from his head, then he kisses his way slowly back up her body and lays next to her, wrapping one arm across her waist and hooking his ankle over hers.

“Damn, that was just… wow,” she tells him after a few minutes, turning her body to face his.

 “Well, I told you, I aim to please,” he says stroking her hair back from her face. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll please you again.”

“Holy crap, do you want to kill me?” Selena asks with a chuckle.

“Would you die happy?”

“Yes, I think I would,” she replies, running a fingertip down his arm and he leans over to kiss her forehead, snuggling closer to her.

“So?” he asks, tilting her head up to look at her.

“Hmm?”

“You said you had a confession for me if I made love to you. I think I’ve held up my end of the bargain, so spill.”

Selena sits up out of his embrace and he wonders for a second if he's said something wrong but then she turns back to him, holding out her hand and he moves to sit beside her.

“I love you,” she says simply and his heart soars. “And I’m not just saying that because of what just happened or what you did today but because it’s true and it’s been true for a while, probably since the night we met, if I’m honest with myself. I was just denying it to myself because it seemed impossible that it should happen so fast but it really did and I’d be a fool to deny it any longer.”

“Well, I’m glad you finally saw the error of your ways,” Norman jokes gently, giving her shoulder a tiny push that she leans back into.

“Yeah, I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes but, when it’s really important, I’ll get there in the end.”

Norman pulls her to him, hugging her close and she leans her head against his shoulder.

“I love you too,” he whispers into her hair and he feels her sigh softly against his neck.

They curl back up on the bed together, talking quietly and making plans, their hands taking a slow exploration of each other’s bodies until they slip gently into love-making again before falling asleep, Norman protectively spooned around Selena’s body.

When he next cracks open a bleary eye, the room is bathed in soft daylight and he's alone in the bed. Rubbing the heel of his hand against his eye, he moves to get up just as Selena comes into the room wearing nothing but his t-shirt from the night before and carrying two mugs of steaming coffee.

“Hey, sleepyhead, good morning,” she says brightly, setting the mugs down on the bedside table and then taking a seat on the edge of the bed beside him.

“Mornin’,” he replies, reaching out an arm to lay across her lap as he smiles up at her. “What time is it?”

“Oh, I don’t know, around 7:30 I guess.”

“In the morning?” Norman asks and Selena laughs, the sound rousing memories of their night together and he feels his cock stirring in response. “Why are you up so early?”

“Umm, hello, you’ve met my kids, right? Boy and a girl, cute as a pair of buttons? Honey, I haven’t slept past 6:00am since the day they were born, not even when they’re not here.”

“That’s just cruel and wrong,” Norman informs her, sitting up to plant a kiss on her cheek.

“Here, maybe this will help,” she says, handing him one of the mugs but he sets it right back down, pulling her over him and back onto the bed.

“I think this is all I need to wake up,” he tells her, gently kissing her lips and he feels her smile against him before she kisses him back.

Their morning foray into passion is just getting heated up when there’s a harsh buzzing from the bedside table and the sound of Queen’s ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ ratchets around the room. With a sigh that Norman feels reverberates throughout her entire body, Selena breaks their kiss and sits up to snag her phone from the bedside table.

“Hi Momma,” she answers it and he raises an eyebrow at her, convinced that her accent just deepened by about fifty percent. “No, I’m home, I’m just a little busy. I guess I didn’t hear the house phone.”

Slyly, Norman pushes his hands up under her shirt, skimming her bare flesh with his fingertips as she wriggles and tries to push him away with her free hand.

“No, Momma, the kids are at Ginny’s,” she says and he can hear her fighting to keep the laughter out of her voice as his hands creep to her breasts and start squeezing them gently. “Momma, I’m kind of in the middle of something right now, can I call you back later?”

Norman snorts out a laugh, pulling her nipples between his fingers and grinning at the glare she gives him as she finally gets out if his grasp.

“Well, if you must know, I have company,” she tells her mother and he can hear the frustration in her voice mingling with a tiny streak of defiance. “No, nobody you know… yes, it’s a man. Actually, Momma, he’s my boyfriend… Yes, you heard me perfectly fine. And if you don’t mind, we only have a little time before Ginny brings the kids home so we’d like to make the most of it, if you get my drift. I’ll call you tonight.”

Selena disconnects the phone, silencing the ringer before she tosses it back on the table and looks at Norman with a slightly shocked expression on her face.

“Did I just do that?” she asks, her eyes going wide.

“You really did,” Norman answers, reaching out to take her hands in his. “You okay, sweet girl?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never spoken to my Momma like that before. I think I can hear her head spinning from here. She’s going to pitch an absolute fit, I’m never going to be allowed to live this one down. I’ll have to hear about it for the rest of my days – what a bad mother I am for sending my kids away so that I can have improper relations with a man, and not just any man, oh no, an actor!”

“Dammit, I’m sorry, baby,” Norman tells her, squeezing her hands miserably as she stares at the wall behind his head, obviously lost in her thoughts. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble for you with your family.”

“No,” Selena says, shaking her head slowly and then focusing on him, a wide grin breaking on her face, “that was amazing, I feel so liberated. I actually said what I wanted her to hear for once with no filter between my thoughts and my mouth. You’re a bad influence on me, Mr. Reedus, and I love it!”

Norman takes in her words, a smile slowly spreading on his own face as he sees the spark dancing in her eyes that her impromptu rebellion has ignited.

“So, just how soon are the kids coming home?” he asks her with a wink.

“Oh, we have a few hours yet,” Selena replies, climbing onto his lap and crossing her forearms behind his neck.

“Then how about we do something that would really make your Momma’s head spin?”

“Fuck yeah,” Selena shouts and Norman laughs as he tips her onto the bed, knowing that he’ll be beside her to deal with whatever judgments her mother might throw at her but, for now, it’s just the two of them and all he wants to do is get to know her even better.

♥♥♥

**Author's Note:**

> A/N I make no secret of the fact that I suck at accents so I attempted nothing here but please note that Selena is a good Southern girl with all that that entails.
> 
> Thank you to jen131 for pointing me in the right direction with the House of Shock. ♥


End file.
